Rocking Out With Bishop Allen

Bishop Allen was in town last night. Longtime readers of the blog might recall that I first saw them at the Mercury Lounge in October of 2003, when I was new to New York. All their songs were from their album Charm School, and the strongest impression they made on me was happy-to-be-singing. They had a bit more instrumentation then (a xylophone?), but by the time I saw them headlining the first Concert for Kerry at the Knitting Factory last April, they had settled down into a more punk aesthetic and their current configuration: Justin Rice with lead vocals and guitar, Christian Rudder on guitar, Christian Owens on bass, and Jack Delamitraux on drums. They showed off one new song from their album last April, and last night half the songs were new to me--Christian Rudder claimed it may be done in a few weeks. Once again, he had a bit of endearing trouble with his guitar, but all in all it was a good show.
The Independant is a huge venue, and it was impressively filled. The lack of intimacy between audience and stage was definitely noticable after hanging out at the Knitting factory, though, and I think the smaller stage was less conducive to the kind of dancing chemistry I've seen Bishop Allen have before. For one thing, I couldn't really get a good look at Christian Owen, which was a bit disappointing, considering how much I previously appreciated her stylin'. I liked all the new songs and the layers they've added to the old songs. Jack Palmitraux's drumming was notably more stylin', and he's got marvelously expressive hair for a drummer. Is it just me or does he look ever so slightly like Dave Eggers? It's probably just the hair.


Various delays meant I didn't get a good feel for the local opening band, Send Help or somesuch, and missed a chunk of the band Bishop Allen is touring California with, We Are Scientists. But I liked their sound, and the delightfully contrived crazy jumping around of the lead singer, Keith Murray. At one point he tackled the bassist, Chris Cain, knocking off his glasses, but Cain played on. Later he jumped uponto something and loomed menacingly over the drummer, Michael Tapper. It's nice to see a small band on a small stage embraced the now stylized histrionics of rock and roll. Murray's also got marvelously expressive hair. Chris Cain was quite proud of the fact that his Tom Selleck like mustache is totally real. I picked up a 6-song EP and look forward to checking it out. If you're in southern California, see if you can catch a show.